UFC officials, however, could not yet confirm the report to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) early Monday afternoon.

UFC 161 takes place June 15 at MTS Centre in Winnipeg. It will be the UFC’s first trip to the Canadian province of Manitoba. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

The card’s main event was hit by injury this past month when interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao was forced out of a title fight against Eddie Wineland with a foot injury. That moved a light heavyweight bout between Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans into the main event spot. Now Sonnen apparently will step up to save the co-feature on account of Nogueira’s injury.

Sonnen has lost two straight – both title fights. Eleven months ago, he lost his rematch to middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. Then he announced a move to light heavyweight and got a spot coaching “The Ultimate Fighter” opposite Jones this past Season 17. He lost by first-round TKO to Jones at UFC 159 in Newark, N.J., in late April.

Rua, a former light heavyweight champ currently ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA light-heavyweight rankings, will be looking to get back in the win column after a December loss to Alexander Gustafsson. Although he hasn’t had a win streak since 2009, it should be noted that he’s never lost back-to-back fights, either. After a controversial decision loss to Lyoto Machida in a 205-pound title fight at UFC 104, he won their rematch to win the belt at UFC 113. But he surrendered it to Jones in March 2011.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?